I bought a ceramic mold and thought I would be able to pour my faster plaster into it and easily separate the two halves and have little figurines. The plaster isn‘t coming out. The plaster is 12 hours into it‘s set time of 24, but it‘s not coming out even with hitting/tapping, and doesn‘t release even with my exacto knife. So obviously I am extremely disappointed. I have never done this before and am now wondering if it was intended for slip casting or I should have used some other material instead of plaster. I was trying to make the figurines for my plastercraft halloween village, which are made from plaster. Is there anything I can use to get it out fairly cleanly? I have tried to run it under hot and warm water to see if it would release or expand and I could pull pieces out, but it didn‘t seem to do much. I‘m very disappointed. For future reference, do I need to apply some sort of release material to make whatever I use not stick to the mold? Hopefully someone has some advise I can use.
Sounds like you may have ruined it. But if you want to spend the time you may with some care be able to dig the plaster out using a Dremel type drill and/or small dental tools. Using plaster in any rigid mold will require a mold release, be it Vaseline applied to the mold or sealing the mold with a water proof sealant that will dry. If the mold were made from flexible silicone or some other plastic, a mold release wouldn't be needed. New wet plaster will bond to dry set plaster,mainly because the dry ,set unsealed plaster having minute holes in the surface and is porous draws the wet plaster into itself However if the plaster mold is to be used for slip casting do not seal it with any thing because the plaster mold is supposed to draw moisture from the slip allowing it to shrink away from the mold so there is no need for a mold release.
If it was a ceramic mold it was most likely intended for slip casting with clay, not with plaster. So I assume the mold is made out of plaster. In order to release plaster you usually would need to seal the surface with something like shellac, (though I don't think that's essential as long as your mold release seals the surface sufficiently, but it will make things easier for multiple use) and something like vaseline as a mold release. I think some people use Pam oil spray or oil soap. Depends how smooth the surface of your mold is how likely you get it out. The harder your mold plaster is compared to the plaster setting, the better your chance you won't ruin the mold. So the sooner you try to get the plaster out, the better, but after 12 hours it will be well set.
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